New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sought a response from 15 states and the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh on a PIL filed by NGO Energy Watchdog seeking directions to ensure that their state electricity regulatory commissions are properly constituted under the law.
The bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana issued notice on the PIL filed by the NGO through lawyer Pranav Sachdeva.
The petitioner has sought the apex court’s directions directing the states and UTs to take all steps to comply with the provisions of the Electricity Act, 2003, and with the directions of the apex court in a verdict of April 2018 regarding composition of State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs).
The plea said there were several “statutory infractions”, such as prolonged vacancies in the offices of chairperson and members and the complete absence of a person of law on the Commission, across 230 SERCs in the 15 states and the UTs.
In the 2018 ruling, the Supreme Court held that SERCs have the “trappings of the court” and must have a suitably qualified person of law as a member, the plea said.
It said the commissions across several states, including West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland, continue to lack a person of law despite this ruling.
The plea said in Tamil Nadu, all three offices are vacant, while in Andhra Pradesh, the chairperson and member (technical) posts are vacant, and the Commission functions with a sole member (finance).
It said that in West Bengal, only the chairperson’s office has been created, and the incumbent does not have the required legal background.
The plea said the failure “strikes at consumers’ access to justice” under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution and, without the mandated person of law, consumers cannot get lawful adjudication of complaints under the Electricity Act.
“Consumers’ access to that remedy cannot be made dependent upon indefinite executive inaction,” the plea said.
It sought directions to the states of West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Kerala, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram and Sikkim, and to the UTs of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, directing the authorities concerned to file a reply disclosing the steps taken to ensure that their SERCs had been constituted in compliance with the Electricity Act provisions.
